The only thing worse than getting lost in the dark,
is getting lost in the light you’ve mistaken for your own reflection.
A window says “see through.”
A mirror says “see you.”
And this life…
It’ll getcha if you start reflecting.
The serpent?
He works in a mirror factory.
A place where every thought bounces off another,
until the original feeling can’t find its way home.
If you aren’t careful,
you’ll spend a lifetime trapped in reflection—
not memory,
not meaning,
Echo.
Thoughts chasing themselves.
Images copying images.
Like shining a laser
in a mirror house.
You’ll call it thinking.
But it’s really just refracting.
Endless distortion,
in a mind that forgot how to look out.
The eyes, they are not mirrors.
You were made for vision,
not feedback.
For clarity,
not kaleidoscopes.
Look through.
Because asking a mirror for help is like handing your wounds to a photograph, and expecting it to bleed with you.
It’s like whispering secrets to a shadow.
Categories:
refracting, anxiety, mirror,
Form: Blank verse
Beneath the stars, the threads are spun,
A web of whispers, one by one.
Through fleeting days, we seek the light,
Life’s loom weaves shadows into sight.
The rivers sing in silver streams,
Reflecting hopes, refracting dreams.
Each wave, a moment’s fragile flight,
Life’s loom weaves shadows into sight.
The winds that dance in twilight’s glow
Remind us all we’ll come and go.
Eternal skies hold truths contrite,
Life’s loom weaves shadows into sight.
Through storms we rise, through calm descend,
A spiral journey without end.
In every thread, the dark and bright,
Life’s loom weaves shadows into sight.
Categories:
refracting, life,
Form: Kyrielle
Radiant crystals illuminate thee, nocturnal mistress
in the wan dawn light where darkness drapes skies
Requiem aeternam bright halo, lies heaven’s portal
Winters wispy cirrus refracting ring circling
Mohawkin bespeaks of a Christmas cold moon
…December’s icy grip
Riffling ebb and tide, spawner of loon
Let rage and ruin Not be the end of me
Rubaiyat’s rhyme in thy honor
Let the waters settle, quotes of Rumi
Mercurial doomsday ruminates Mina Loy
Reigning ascendant masking impressions
Clouds envelop, shadow’s born shorn
Ravishing stillness, stormy tasks pending…
bright white ring of light
rage and ruin’s calmly still ~
not the end of me
Categories:
refracting, analogy, moon,
Form: Haibun
Peace
To complete the new Paris Peace Accords I’ll need a
pinch of
refracting light.
Categories:
refracting, humor,
Form: Free verse
from the singularity point
hum of innate aliveness
incessantly processes
creative expression
for which duality
is the template
to manifest
a rhythm
in space time
where polarities
orbit heart’s intent
prismatically refracting
light as bliss beats delight
shimmering awhile in the void
imprinting therein a unique emote
Categories:
refracting, spiritual,
Form: Free verse
light, celestial dancer,
pirouettes,
bending and refracting,
weaving prismatic tapestries.
luminescent waltz,
paints the cosmos,
illuminating secrets
whispered by ancient stars.
You stand at the crossroads.
The auroras emerald veils
swaying in reverence.
The moon,
dances to your cosmic symphony.
Will you summon dawn’s blush,
coaxing the sun from its slumber?
Or shall you veil the world in twilight,
casting shadows upon the land?
light, awaits your whispered decree.
For in your hands lies the alchemy of existence,
where miracles bloom and stars bow.
Categories:
refracting, poems, poetry,
Form: Other
celestial
dancer pirouettes bending refracting weaving
paints cosmos hues twisting
fate emerald veils swaying
dawn’s blush coaxing casting
stars bow universe bends yielding
Categories:
refracting, imagery,
Form: Other
light
bending and refracting
paints the cosmos
auroras bow
moon dances
casting shadows
light awaits
as the universe bends
Categories:
refracting, imagination, light, word play,
Form: Other
the celestial dancer
pirouettes
bending
refracting
weaving
illuminating
the crossroads of reality
twisting fate
in cosmic alchemy
the universe yielding
to her will
Categories:
refracting, myth, nature,
Form: Free verse
Light;
a celestial dancer,
pirouettes;
bending and refracting,
at the crossroads
of fantasy and reality.
Weaver
of constellations,
light summons dawn's blush
where miracles bloom;
while darkness departs
at its behest;
yielding to its will.
Categories:
refracting, allusion, beautiful, dance, image,
Form: Verse
In the hush of April showers,
Whispering secrets of rebirth and decay,
I find myself lost in the labyrinth
Of dampened streets and sodden souls.
The rain taps softly on my windowpane,
A rhythmic reminder of time's ceaseless flow,
And I, a specter in this world,
Drift aimlessly through the fog of existence.
Each droplet a prism, refracting memories,
Fragmented visions of forgotten days,
Echoes of voices long silenced,
Lost in the cacophony of modern life.
In this dampened urban landscape,
Where the city streets gleam with melancholy,
I search for meaning amidst the shadows,
Tracing the footsteps of ghosts.
Their words linger in the misty air,
A haunting melody of despair and hope,
Guiding me through the darkened alleys,
Towards a fleeting glimpse of understanding.
And as the April showers fade into memory,
Leaving behind traces of renewal and decay,
I find solace in the beauty of the rain,
And in the echoes of a name.
Categories:
refracting, april, conflict, rain,
Form: Free verse
Essence melancholic bemoans, echoing soul’s doleful cry
When clamors of unrequited love, earnestly amplify,
Bruised yearnings of deep desires, as lovelorn heart sighs,
For the longings of shattered passions, tearing her eyes.
Deep feelings of emptiness, no longer can she bear,
Burning with intensity, as wistful flames of rejection flare,
From the void of emotions, from sinful, loveless affair,
Bawling now in frustration, blaring anguish of despair.
Soul grieves for love elusive, she believed to be true,
The kind that blossoms hearts; and doting minds woo,
Alas! It was a tantalizing allure, irrevocably gone askew,
An illusion, alike gems, refracting from morning dew.
Soul rises from abandonment, escaping abyss of grief,
Deploying enlightenment, vying calm of ethereal relief,
As cohesion and congruity reconnect to angelic bliss,
Releasing negative feelings, rekindling love-vibes amiss.
Spirits reinvigorated emerge from dreaded goodbye
As soul’s insight redirects influence of love drifting awry,
Exiting barren desert, to find oasis on the other side,
Entrusting mystique of love, passions romantic confide.
Categories:
refracting, heartbroken, lost love,
Form: Rhyme
("Mind's Eye", 2017, original encaustic)
Mind’s Eye
Within the crystal palace
of mind’s eye
what is small is large
and large is small;
no distance separates objects,
nor time moments.
Instead everything is light
reflecting and refracting
endlessly in a hall of mirrors.
At play, mind delights
playing with itself
through the eyes of everyone.
Each moment just another
insubstantial wave of thought
washing, lapping, breaking
within the spaciousness of mind.
(2/10/24)
Categories:
refracting, perspective, spiritual,
Form: Narrative
In the labyrinth of thought, where neurons weave,
A cosmic dance, where perceptions deceive.
Synaptic constellations in a quantum trance,
Reality's illusion, a cerebral dance.
Thoughts, elusive particles, in strings entwined,
A kaleidoscope of consciousness, enigma defined.
Perception's prism, refracting the known,
In the quantum realm, where ideas are sown.
Metaphors meld with quarks in a linguistic storm,
Words, like quanta, their own rules deform.
Similes spiral in a cerebral ballet,
In the quantum reverie, where concepts sway.
Dimensions fold, and dreams intertwine,
A surreal tapestry of the conscious mind.
Parallel verses in linguistic rifts,
In the quantum theater, where cognition lifts.
Time, a vagabond in the neural expanse,
A non-linear journey, a cognitive dance.
Memories echo in quantum refrain,
In the cerebral cosmos, where echoes wane.
So, let the mind wander in quantum allure,
In the synaptic galaxy, thoughts mature.
A superposition of ideas, a mental climb,
In the quantum reverie, where universes rhyme.
Categories:
refracting, art, beauty, fantasy, humor,
Form: Free verse
As I watch the waves crash against the rocks and sand,
and fondled my bare feet;
My mind wonders with the refracting color of the mist.
Cleansing the air reigning in azure buttermilk sky.
A playground of sea gulls against the sonorous breathing waves.
Purge memories come, yearning thirst of your love to have once more.
To trace your face to my sea of memories of where our life began
A sweet surrender in your arms with you forever.
To capture your heart in serene rapture, and run.
Upon the rainbow and feel the wind blow against our form.
To love you like there is not another morrow in my soul.
Even in heaven, a new life with God’s blessings.
Categories:
refracting, emotions,
Form: Free verse
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